Assemblyman Jared Huffman easily defeats Roberts

The crowd cheers as Jared Huffman, left, announces that, after a long and positive campaign, he will be going to Congress for the 6th District of California, at the San Rafael Racquet Club in San Rafael, Calif. on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.(Special to the IJ/Jocelyn Knight)

Assemblyman Jared Huffman was sailing to an easy win Tuesday night over his Republican opponent, Tiburon investment adviser Dan Roberts, in the race for the new 2nd Congressional District seat.

With 35 percent of the vote counted, Huffman had a 70 percent share and Roberts had 30 percent.

Huffman, 48, will go to Washington, D.C., after serving the maximum allowable three terms in the state Assembly. Before joining the Assembly he worked as an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and served 12 years on the board of the Marin Municipal Water District.

Huffman will take the place of Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, 75, who is retiring after serving 20 years as Marin County's representative in Congress.

Huffman will be leaving the California Legislature, where Democrats rule, and joining the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

"That's going to be a change, and I'm going to have to find a way to be effective with the hand that is dealt me," Huffman said.

"I will reach out," he said. "I will try to build some relationships and make some friends across party lines even as I work in the years ahead to try to change the majority to Democratic."

Huffman said he was encouraged Tuesday by President Obama's victory and the Democrats' ability to maintain control of the Senate.

"I think there is a statement there that the public has seen enough of this extreme ideology above everything else," Huffman said.

He added, "We're really struggling right now with the question of whether our government is entirely about ideology or whether it is about problem solving. I'm going to do my best to be on the problem-solving side."

Huffman said his top priorities will be working to get Americans back to work by pushing for increased investment in critical infrastructure, education, clean energy solutions and bolder action to end the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

Roberts had to cope with a preponderance of registered Democrats in the district and a dearth of campaign funds. Huffman collected more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions compared with about $44,000 for Roberts. Roberts attempted to compensate for his lack of financial backing by contributing $210,000 of his own money to his campaign.

Roberts said he had no regrets, however.

"I think democracy and voice are very imporant," Roberts said. "I just didn't attract enough of the independents or Reagan conservative Democrats, and Jared ran a strictly on the message campaign, and it resonated."